CLARICE ASSAD (EPK)

Highlights: Commission premieres continue in the 2012-2013 season. In October 2012, the acclaimed ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, Ohio presented the world premiere of Ms. Assad’s concerto commission, Album de Retratos; in March 2013, the San Jose Chamber Orchestra presents an evening devoted to works written by Clarice, including the premiere of a commission for string orchestra and string quartet. A mini-residency in April 2013 at The Iolani School in Hawaii will include the performance of a new arrangement by Ms. Assad of Bartok’s Rumanian Dances. Clarice will also serve as Albany Orchestra's Composer-Educator partner, curating a major educational project with a local school during her residency, and will join the orchestra for a performance of her Concerto for Scat-Singer, Piano and Orchestra in May. The season's opening concert will feature a newly commissioned work by Ms. Assad. In October 2013, a new work for orchestra will be premiered by the Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo under leadership of Marin Alsop. The work was commission by Fundação OSESP.

Clarice’s music have been published in France (Editions Lemoine), Germany (Trekel), Criadores do Brasil (Brazil) and in the United States (Virtual Artists Collective Publishing), and have been performed in Europe, South America, the United States and Japan.

Ms. Assad’s latest solo recording for the Adventure Music label is HOME, an album of original works and interpretations of Brazilian songs. AllMusic. com praised, “Everything here lives up to Assad’s reputation, and even furthers it; she’s a talent quite beyond compare.”

Ms. Assad is the recipient of such awards as the Aaron Copland Award, several ASCAP awards, Meet The Composer's Van Lier Fellowship, the Franklin Honor Society, as well as a nomination from the Latin Grammy Foundation for best contemporary composition. She has been commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Fundação OSESP, the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, Concordia Chamber Players , the Albany Symphony, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, PRO MUSICA Chamber Orchestra and the New Century Chamber Orchestra, to name a few. She is the principal staff arranger for the New Century Chamber Orchestra, and the responsible for most of the orchestra’s musical arrangements, such as the highly praised chamber orchestra version of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

Clarice Assad has also written for theater and ballet. Works include Ópera das Pedras, written and directed by visual artist Denise Milan and co-directed by Mabou Mine's co-founder and director Lee Breuer; an original soundtrack for the play A Lição de Anatomia by Argentinian playwright Carlos Mathus, the ballet Steps to Grace, by choreographer Lou Fancher and Essentials of Flor by Kristi Spessard. Assad's Impressions, a suite for chamber orchestra, has been choreographed in the United States & Brazil.

As a pianist, Ms. Assad,) has received acclaim for her performances of both original compositions and her own arrangements of popular Brazilian songs and jazz standards. She has performed at venues including the Caramoor International Jazz Festival, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Concertgebow in Amsterdam, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts in California, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall in Chicago, Modlin Center for the Performing Arts in Richmond, Le Casino de Paris in Paris, France and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, Belgium. As a vocalist, Ms. Assad sings in Portuguese, French, Italian and English, but thrives in exploring the voice as an instrument, creating a vast array of innovative techniques. “When she scats, she sings with intonation as precise as any digital device, improvising cascading scales that take on sparkling lives of their own.” (Tucson Citizen)

A native of Rio de Janeiro, Clarice Assad was born into one of Brazil’s most famous musical families (she is the daughter of Sergio Assad, one of today’s preeminent guitarists and composers), and has performed professionally since the age of seven. Formal piano studies began with Sheila Zagury in Brazil; she then studied with Natalie Fortin in Paris and had additional instruction in Jazz and Brazilian piano under the tutelage of Leandro Braga. Clarice continued her classical piano studies in the United States with Ed Bedner (Berklee School of Music) and then Bruce Berr at Roosevelt University in Chicago. Composition studies have been with Ilya Levinson, Stacy Garrop, David Rakowski, Osvaldo Golijov, Michael Daugherty, Evan Chambers and Claude Baker. Clarice studied voice with Susan Botti and Judy Blazer. Ms. Assad Holds a Bachelor of Music from the Chicago College of the Performing Arts, Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois, and a Masters of Music in Composition from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

She currently resides in NYC.